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China is making progress on two new soon-to-fly rockets and will move on to develop a range of new launch vehicles with various capabilities before 2030, senior space officials have said.

Long Lehao, chief carrier rocket designer at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), said at a 2017 World Space Week conference earlier in October that China will develop 12 types of new-generation Long March carrier rockets by 2030.

This will include a Saturn V-class super-heavy lift rocket that will be capable of launching a human mission to the Moon.

CALT is a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for China's space programme, and has developed a range of Long March rockets to meet various needs.

Professor Huang Jun at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told gbtimes.com that CALT is currently working on two launch vehicles, the Long March 8 and the Long March 5B.

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A rendering of the Tianhe-1 Chinese Space Station core module with a multi docking hub on the left. CMSE

Long March 8

Professor Huang says the Long March 8 is a new type of medium-sized rocket which will use non-toxic and low-pollution propellant, mainly for the task of launching commercial satellites with international competitiveness.

The emergence of SpaceX and its game-changing partly reusable Falcon 9 has spurred China and others, such as the European Space Agency with the new Ariane 6, to look at lowering costs to meet this new competition.

The Long March 8 is expected to complete its first flight in 2019 and will have the capability to send 4.5 tonnes to a 700 km altitude Sun synchronous orbit (SSO), 7.6 tons to LEO and 2.5 tons of geosynchronous transfer orbit.

"Long March 8 has a two and a half stage configuration. Its first stage is basically the same as that of the Long March 7, using two YF-100 liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene engines," Huang explains.

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The first Long March 7 in the vertical assembly building at Wenchang in June 2016.

"The second stage rocket is 3 metres in diameter, using double YF-75 liquid rocket engines. The core will be combined with two 120 tonne solid boosters of 2m in diameter."

Long March rockets have until now used liquid fuelled strapon boosters, making Long March 8 a pioneer.

As well as allowing a move away from toxic hydrazine fuel, the Long March 8 will also greatly increase lift capabilities compared with the Long March 4, which is currently used for SSO launches.

Super-heavy Long March 9

China will soon also officially begin development of the Long March 9, with a launch capacity roughly the same as the Saturn V rocket of the United States, which took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

According to Huang, the Long March 9 will be near 100 metres in length with maximum core diameter of 10 metres. Its boosters will be 5 meters in diameter - the same as the core of the Long March 5 - China's largest rocket so far.

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The first Long March 5 rocket being rolled out for launch at Wenchang in late October 2016. Su DongChina Daily

It will have a carrying capacity of about 140 tonnes to LEO - more than 5 times of the Long March 5B - and 50 tonnes to Lunar Transfer Orbit.

"At present, the technical research and verification work for Long March 9 is going smoothly. The key technologies include the conceptual/preliminary design and optimisation of the heavy rocket, the design, manufacture and test of large 10m diameter rocket structure, the development of a LOX / kerosene engine with 480 tonnes of thrust and hydrogen oxygen engine with 220 tonnes of thrust.

CALT is studying a mission concept for human landings on the Moon which involves both a Long March 9 rocket and a Long March 5B to launch the crewed spacecraft.

In the long run, the Long March 9 could be used in "China's deep space exploration, crewed lunar and Mars missions, space infrastructure construction such as a space-based solar power station and other tasks."